Budhini [Hardcover] Joseph Sarah and Sreenivasan Sangeetha

Sarah Joseph is a highly acclaimed Malayalam novelist, short-story writer, political commentator and activist. She is the author of eight novels, nine collections of short fiction, five novelettes, and several plays, children literature and non-fiction books. Her many awards include the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, the Vayalar Award, the Crossword Award, the Padmaprabha Literary Award, the O Chandu Menon Award and the Shashwathi Award. Her name is inextricably linked with the feminist movement in Kerala and her radical writings inspired and paved the way for future generations of Malayali working women and activists.


Sangeetha Sreenivasan is a bilingual author of several works of fiction and children's literature, including Acid published by Penguin Random House India. In addition to her original works, Sreenivasan has translated Elena Ferrante's The Days of Abandonment into Malayalam. Her translation of one of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels is forthcoming from Mathrubhumi Books. She is currently working on a translation of Chris Kraus's cult feminist classic I Love Dick.

On 6 December 1959, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru went to Dhanbad district in Jharkhand to inaugurate the Panchet Dam across the Damodar river. A fifteen-year-old girl, Budhini, chosen by the Damodar Valley Corporation welcomed him with a garland and placed a tikka on his forehead. When these ceremonial gestures were interpreted as an act of matrimony, the fifteen-year-old was ostracized by her village and let go from her job as a construction worker, citing violation of Santal traditions. Budhini was outlawed for 'marrying outside her community'.

Budhini Mejhan's is the tale of an uprooted life, told here through the contemporary lens of Rupi Murmu, a young journalist distantly related to her and determined to excavate her story. In this reimagined history, Sarah Joseph evokes Budhini with vigour, authority and panache, conjuring up a robust and endearing feminine character and reminding us of the lives and stories that should never be forgotten.

Translated by her daughter, Sangeetha Sreenivasan, a fiercely individualistic novelist herself, Sarah Joseph's Budhini powerfully invokes the wider bio-politics of our relentless modernization and the dangers of being indifferent to ecological realities.